We started the year with a release (TILTS) and now we'll end the year with one...

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp15 ... -650px.jpgSURPRISE: four of Justin K. Broadrick's incredible sonic personalities within one impressive 12" EP, simply titled Christmas.JESU lays the foundation with the initial hymn, along with brilliant remixes from related projects PALE SKETCHER and FINAL, plus an exclusive and brand new remix by the oppressive JK FLESH entity.

Originally self-released as a digital-only EP for Xmas 2010, the 35+ minutes of music within have been sonically upgraded by mastering wizard James Plotkin specifically for the two physical formats. Vinyl edition comes on complimentary ice-blue color wax housed in a glorious high-gloss full color jacket, CD edition also comes with high-gloss artwork and has an exclusive lyrics page.

We are expecting these to arrive at RoboHQ within the first week or two of December and plan to rock all the pre-orders right back out the door hopefully just in time for the holidays. If all goes according to plan, folks should be receiving their packages right around Xmas itself.

However, because the entire postal system gets bogged down around the holidays, it is impossible to guarantee things at this time of year... that being said, Priority Mail is recommended for affordable semi-expedited delivery.

This release has been in the pipeline for ages and we're glad it's finally (almost) in existence, even if so damn close to the wire. We're thrilled to work with Justin K. Broadrick again and have plans to announce another JKB release in 2013.

Beyond that, it's been a wild year with a lot of changes for us but we're happy to say that some stability is finally on the horizon with new roots being put down (and/or in motion) after long periods of flux.

We keep chugging along with the Robotic Empire - Online Store and want to genuinely thank everyone who's ordered from us this year, or... ever! We couldn't keep this operation afloat without the direct support of our mailorder followers, and we really appreciate all of those who've stuck with us through the years or just found out about us recently. It's getting increasingly difficult to run a label like ours in this "landscape" and blah blah blah, the same thing you've probably heard a lot of times by now... but at the end of the day, we are a small operation and sincerely appreciate everyone who's helped.

Enough emo year-end-sentimentality, let's get to the MUSIC: lots of cool new stuff joins this update, including a rad NEIL YOUNG t-shirt (the same image infamously connected to LYNYRD SKYNYRD), OLD MAN GLOOM's appropriately-timed Christmas re-presses, BONGZILLA, PROTESTANT, THE AUSTRASIAN GOAT, and BASTARD NOISE / MAN IS THE BASTARD vinyl, SUTEKH HEXEN's new album and collections release on wax, sinister tapes from NIHILL and HALLOWED BUTCHERY and surprisingly/awesomely a fantastic new TAIGA cassette which is Bryant Clifford Meyer's solo project, our old dawg who is/was in such acts as ISIS, RED SPAROWES, PALMS and more!

On the re-stock tip we've got extensive Denovali vinyl imports aplenty, Magic Bullet essential re-ups abound, LSD AND THE SEARCH FOR GOD, more OLD MAN GLOOM on cassette and vinyl, plus some other random jibba jabb. Here are the full lists:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp15 ... -Bauer.jpgAnd last but clearly not least, we have picked a winner for our most recent contest: congratulations to Björn Bauer for his incredible and intricate tree drawing that wins our shirt-design-contest. We received some seriously amazing submissions (either for content, skill and/or ability to make us laugh) but Björn's fantastic image hit the nail on the head. Check out his website for an extensive portfolio and more info on this great artist. Big ups to everyone who took the time and effort to submit something for this, it was a lot of fun going over all the entries, and (with their permission) we may post a few of the "runner up" images as well. We will post a larger version of Björn's graphic when we announce shirt ordering info in the coming weeks... stay tuned!

BOOM! Great way to end the year. Hope everyone reading this can reflect on all the good things that have happened to them these past 11-12 months and let it percolate and overpower any bad elements of the year. OK OK enough hippy nonsense, don't trample your fellow man or anything but Robo-capitalist scum still say "go buy our rotatable plastic circles!"